Keeping it mum: The person we least want to know about our smoking habit is our mother

It seems that teenagers are not the only ones going behind the bike shed for a forbidden cigarette.

New research shows that over 30 per cent of UK smokers keep their habit under wraps.

And more than 50 per cent say the person they most want to hide their habit from is their mother.

Fathers came a close second at 44 per cent with partners and children coming in at 26 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

The survey of 2,000 smokers also revealed that 37 per cent of the people hiding their smoking from their parents are over 55.

With the average Briton starting smoking at 15, that means they have been lying to their parents about their smoking for 40 years.

Embarrassment is one of the main reasons for the secrecy, with 37 per cent confessing to being ashamed of being a smoker and 32 per cent not wanting their loved ones to worry about their health.

The cost of cigarettes embarrasses 22 per cent of smokers while many underestimate how often they light up.

As many as 40 per cent tell others that they smoke less than they do, 15 per cent lying on private health care applications, critical illness and income protection documents and 11 per cent keeping quiet on job applications.

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Dermot Ryan, managing director of E-Lites, which commissioned the research, said: 'Smokers in the UK are lying to themselves and others about their habits with many of them admitting to being ashamed of being a smoker.'

A recent study showed that women who smoke as little as one cigarette a day are at higher risk of dying suddenly from heart attack and other heart problems.

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Many smokers lie about the amount of cigarettes they smoke

The risk is doubled compared with women who don’t smoke, and higher for long-term smokers.

But researchers said that the threat can be reversed within five years if women quit the habit.

Roopinder Sandhu, the study’s lead author and a cardiac electro-physiologist at the University of Alberta in Canada, said: ‘Sudden cardiac death is often the first sign of heart disease among women, so lifestyle changes that reduce the risk are particularly important.

‘Our study shows that cigarette smoking is an important modifiable risk factor for sudden cardiac death among all women. Quitting smoking before heart disease develops is critical.’

In the UK almost half the ten million smokers are women. Although smoking is falling among both sexes, the decline has been less rapid in women.

Further research showed that three out of ten smokers had lied to their GPand a quarter had kept it concealed from their employer.

Boots pharmacist Angela Chalmers said: 'Not many people realise that those one or two crafty cigarettes a day can still cause long-term damage to your health.'

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